The 7 heavens and 7 hells of WoW

For most of us, I think it is a balance (maybe the only balanced part of the game), 7 heavens and 7 hells.

Seven Heavens

Ease of play

Whether you’re a hardcore player or newbie, the interface is easy to use. Sure there will be a few stumbles at 1st, but soon enough you can focus on the world while your fingers do the work.

It wasn’t always this way. There is a reason there are so many UI mods. These days it’s for convenience, back in Vanilla it was for playability.

I have 10 thumbs, so I have always struggled with WASD games. Keyboard turners are laughed at in WoW because there are much better and easier ways to do it.

Magical places

Once the interface settles into your unconscious, you get the opportunity to look around. Unless you bought your toon on eBay, you will see a wealth of graphics, some magical places, and some awesome encounters.

A storyline worth following

Particularly in WoLK, but even before that it was worth doing the quests if you like playing a storyline game.

Some people PvP

Some people Raid

Some people Quest

It’s worth questing for many reasons, and storyline is one of them.

Gnomes

What can I say. Heaven = Gnomes. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

Enemy Faction

It’s great having an enemy faction, at least on a PvE realm and many people enjoy PvP realms as well.

It adds an extra dimension. Will that red player attack me, or can I continue to collect my Gnoll ears.

Soon you will be able to defect and even now you can reroll.

Raids, Instances & Battlegrounds

Questing can become a drag, but of course what makes a MMO is the M for multiplayer.

The ability, nay need to group for this content is awesome. The places themselves while occasionally frustrating make the game fun.

A role for all

You don’t just have to be Conan. You can be Merlin too! Different strokes for different folks, and WoW has them all.

Seven Hells

Laaag

Probably my worst WoW hell isn’t really about the game, it’s about the connection to the game. Dome nights you are just left wondering why you even logged on.

Collect 7 hells

Collection quests are a form of purgatory. It’s punishment for having fun in the rest of the game. Many people avoid them like they are hell itself.

Ganking

Having an enemy faction can add flavor or induce tears. Spending an hour being corpse camped is a never-ending nightmare.

Bag space

He he, I had to insert this somewhere. There is never enough and it forces you to make decisions you would rather not make.

Forget the ethically difficult decisions in WoLK, deciding whether to delete that novelty item will be the hardest decision you ever make.

Grind

Eternal slavery? Blizzard has done well to remove the need for traditional grinding.

Still, rep grinding remains, daily grinding remains. If you want a turtle mount, go on and grind till there are tears in your eyes and you are prepared to repent a lifetime of sins.

Chat

Trade chat, Barrens Chat… It’s worse than Mother-in-Law chat. Admittedly you can turn it off, buy it’s a hell to be endured before you discover that… And god forbid you actually need the channel.

PuGs

This is all sorts of flavors of hell in it’s own right. To be fair, a guild or regular group can be as much fail as a PuG, but it’s a rare day.

Some PuGs just make you wonder who you crossed in RL earlier in the day to deserve such damnation.

But really, Gnomes don’t have to be your nightmare… just faction transfer and we can all be friends… can’ help you with the mouse though….

I was bugged for ages with a mouse (or usb slot) that would intermittently shut up shop… happened on a couple of boss fights… luckily ones that didn’t require movement and were single target… still frustrating as all hell

I think my personal favourite brand of ganking is the /wave, followed by a ride-by so you drop your guard, followed by a death grip-holy-hell-what-just-happened death. That has to be like, level 7.9 of hell or something. ^_^

Couldn’t agree more.
Especially when the ride-by lulls you into enough security to take on a revenant in Wintergrasp. :(

Guilds themselves can be an interesting one – being in a guild with a bunch of like-minded people can be one of the most fun and rewarding things about WoW. Equally, guild can become a personal form of hell for folks that don’t get on well with guildies.

Griefing would be another hell – there’s nothing worse then people griefing you just for the sake of being mean – corpse camping comes in under this aswell, but I heard a story recently where a hunter was in the process of taming Loque only to have Loque nuked down by a member of the opposite faction. (Loque is that gorgeous looking rare spawn spirit cat)